i^.^ 



LETTER 



OF 



REV. SAMUEL D. CAMPBELL, 

OF GENEVA, ALABAMA, 



ON 



AFRICAN COLONIZATIOI: 



IN REPLY TO A REVIEW ON THAT SUBJECT 



REV. DR. J. B. ADJER, 

OF SOUTH CAROLINA. . 



HARTFORD: 
STEAM PRESS OF ELIIIU GEER, 16 State Street. 
I860. 



,^ 



<.-l* 



AFRICAN COLONIZATION. 



GENEVA, Coffee Co., Ala., 21st March, 1860. 
Rev. J. B. ADJER, D. D.; 

Dear Sir : — Not until I received your letter of the 6th of December 
last, (lid I learn that you had published an article on African Colonization, and 
not until within a few days have I had the privilege of reading that article, 
although it was presented to the public more than three years ago. 

As you were pleased to express "so much respect for my opinions," and 
as my opinion is so diflFerent from yours on several points relating to African 
Colonization, I venture to give you my views on the general subject, briefly 
and promptly, and with directness and clearness, as far as I am able. 

On this subject you have reason to respect my opinion, for they are not 
peculiar to me, nor to the great body of Presbyterian ministers, who, like 
myself, occupy humble and retired situations in rural and missionary life. 
They are the opinions of all our Professors in all our Theological Seminaries, 
save that of Columbia, as far as I have heard, and with few exceptions of the 
Professors in all our Colleges under ecclesiastical control. And they are 
held, and have been held, by such men as the Alexanders, Millers, Breck- 
enridges, Hoges, and Rices; and by Hodge, Baxter, Plumer, spring. Board- 
man, Backus, Leyburn, Krebs, Van Rensselaer, and a host of others, the sa- 
fest, most rehable, most venerable, most learned, most pious men that have 
appeared on this continent. No man has so nearly attained the universal 
confidence of the Presbyterian Church in America, a;id at the same time been 
so highly respected by those without our pale, as Dv. Archibald Alexander. 
But it cannot be unknown to you that the colonization of the free blacks of 
our country on the coast of Africa was one of his favorite plans of benevo. 
lence ; that he took an early interest in the cause ; that he wrote a large vol- 
ume of its history, and several articles in its defence against the assaults of 
abolitionists. Nor can you be ignorant that the friends of Colonization have 
not been confined to the northern and middle States. The cause has been 
nobly sustained by numbers of our best ministers and laymen in Tennessee, 
Mississippi and Louisiana. But questions of this kind cannot be settled by 
authority, nor by the vox popidi It is possible that the great and good of 
the past and the present, and of the North and the South, have been in er- 
ror for the last forty years in sustaining a cause seemingly of such pure be- 
nevolence, and that some of the venerable dead, had they lived until the 
present day, would have seen their error and abandoned the sandy foundation 



4 

on which the clauns of Colonization rest. But the fact that your opinions 
run counter to those of so many wise and good men, should make others to 
Avhom they aie novel, cautious in receiving them, and lead to a careful and 
prayerful examination before they are adopted. And the fact that my opin- 
ions have so long been cherished by so many men of eminence for piety and 
repute for wisdom and benevolence, encourages me to undertake what might 
otherwise appear presumption. 

If you were a stranger to me I might suppose that your favorable admis- 
sions, and your candid statement of important facts bearing testimony in favor 
of Colonization were made ad eaptmuium. But your christian character, 
your well known integrity and sincerity, forbid us to ascribe them to any oth- 
er motive than a regard for the truth and for historical accuracy. But some 
of your admissions, when placed in juxtaposition with your arguments against 
Colonization, approach as nearly to paradoxes as anything ever advanced by 
coloiiizationists. " We say, therefore, let the colonies of free blacks in Afri- 
ca have a fair chance, — let them have all the aid it is proper and advisable to 
give them." " We desire earnestly that it should have a fair trial, but are 
without any faith in its success." These sentences are as paradoxical as the 
double-handed scheme of the Colonizationists which you attempt to expose, — 
the plan of christianizing Africa by sending to her shores the dregs of the 
lowest class of our population, whose removal will be a riddance of a great 
evil from ourselves. When you say "Let the colonies have a fair chance," 
and '•''Let them have all the aid it is proper and advisable to give them," you 
grant everything the most ardent Colonizationist could ask. You could not 
desire more for the sacred cause of Foreign Missions. But when you say you 
are ivithout any faith in its success, you pronounce the whole scheme Utopi- 
an, and the most bitter enemies of the cause could scarcely desire you to say 
more. But the cause of Colonization, like that of Missions, abides in faith, 
and our fathers and brethren, dead and alive, who have favored the cause, 
have been accustomed to hope even against hope, and to press forward in the 
face of many difficulties. And although they find nothing in the Word of 
God specifically commanding or authorizing the undertaking, neither do they 
find anything forbidding it; and they see in the providences of God many 
tokens of his favor ; fully as many as the Pilgrim fathers had in the Mayflow- 
er, and far more than Baleigh and Smith had in laying the foundijtions of the 
colony of Jamestown. And do they not have as much authority from the 
Bible for colonizing Africa, as these heroes had for colonizing America? 

But it is not a sufficient refutation of several propositions to show that 
they are paradoxical. If a man of less faith and weaker intellect than Lord 
Bacon had propounded the Christian paradoxes found in the second volume of 
his works, he might have been suspected of skepticism. But none ever sus- 
pected that Prince of Philosophers of varying from the Christian faith, what- 
ever we may think of his Christian life. 

Your first onset against the Colonization Society is to place two of its 
claims to favor in a paradoxical position, and then pronounce them incompati- 
ble. " It proposes to rid the United States of a corrupt and worthless popu- 
lation, and at the same time, by this very process, and out of these very ma- 
terials, to construct a virtuous, intelligent and prosperous community in Afri- 



ca." Now, although many well informed persons deem the free blacks, con- 
sidering their circumstances, neither particularly worthless or corrupt, I be- 
lieve that the two things here proposed (in your view) to be done are not 
incompatible, that they are to be accomplished by one and the same process; 
and farther, that to a considerable extent they have been accomplished in the 
colony of Liberia, — yea, to an extent that ought to make the Christian oppo- 
nents to Colonization very modest in setting forth publicly their objections to 
a scheme fraught with and fruitful only of good. And it is not only in Libe- 
ria that we see the process going on, of taking the imperfect and useless ma- 
terials from one building and of it rearing other elegant or substantial struct- 
ures, the admiration of many beholders. The migrating populatioa that have 
laid the foundations of the Republics in the western and south-western parts 
of our country, were by no means the most intelligent, most refined, most vir- 
tuous, or most godly part of the communities from Avhich they migrated. They 
were enterprising, but they were generally rough, unrefined, uncultivated, and 
to a great extent profane and in other respects vicious. Yet the very commu- 
nities planted and reared by them and their children, are in numerous instan- 
ces ahead of the communities from which they came. AVere there no advan- 
ces of this kind from bad to better, our world would indeed have little ground 
of hope. And such advances are promoted by removals and changes, and are 
prevented by stagnations. The refined and high-minded Virginians sprang 
from a low origin, — some of them having little, if any, superiority to the foun- 
ders of Liberia. And as the removal of these was a riddance to the United 
States, so the removal of those was a riddance to the streets and lanes of 
Loudon. 

Charles Campbell, in his "History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion 
of Virginia," says of the first company of emigrants: Of the whole number, 
one hundred, seventy-eight were classified, of whom fifty-four were gentle- 
men, four carpenters, twelve laborers, a blacksmith, a sailor, a barber, a brick- 
layer, a mason, a tailor, a drummer, and a chirugeon." More than half the 
company unfit for colonists. The next company, which was brought out by 
Newport in 1608, Avas but little better. '^ Of the whole number, one hun- 
dred and twenty, there were thirty-three gentlemen, twenty-one laborers, — 
some of these only footmen, six tailors, two apothecaries, two jewellers, two 
gold-refiners, two goldsmiths, a gunsmith, a chirugeon, a perfumer, a cooper, 
a tobacco-pipe maker, and a blacksmith." It was of some of this company 
that Stith g.;ve the following anecdote : " But the axes often blistering their 
tender fingers, they would, at every third stroke, drown the echo with a loud 
volley of oaths. To remedy which sin, the President ordered every man's 
oaths to be numbered, and at night, for every oath to have a can of water 
poured down his sleeve, which so washed and drenched the ofi"ender that in a 
short time an oath was not heard in a week." — Stifh's History of Virginia^ 
page 80. The third company, which came in 1000, was larger. Besides 
one hundred and fifty that were wrecked on the Bermudas island, there reach- 
ed Virginia, "Ratcliffe, Martin and Archer, together with sundry captains 
and 'divers gentlemen of good means and great parentage,' and about three 
hundred more emigrants, the greater proportion of them profligate youths, 
packed off from home ' to escape ill destinies,' broken-down gentlemen, bank» 



rupt tradesmen, and the Vxke.^^-^CawpheU^ par/e 55. This is a description of 
the early colonists of Virginia by the most indefatigable student of the histo- 
ry of the Ancient Dominion now living. Of a later period of the history the 
same writer says: "There was only one carpenter in the colony; three oth* 
ers, however, were learning that trade. There were two blacksmiths and two 
sailors. The settlers were for the most part poor gentlemen, serving men, 
libertines, &c., and with such materials the wonder is that the settlement was 
effected at all. Lord Bacon says : " It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take 
the scum of people, wicked, condemned men with whom you plant, and not 
only so, but it spoileth the plantation, for they will ever live like rogues, and 
not fall to work, but be lazy and do mischief, spend victuals and be (piickly 
weary." — CampheU,pa<je 30, Bacon^s Works, vol. 1, page 41. Bacon says 
again, in his advice to Sir George Yillicrs, "B ;t these things would by all 
means be prevented, that no known bankrupt for shelter, nor known murderer 
or other wicked person to avoid the law, nor known heretic or schismatic be 
suffered to go into those countries, or, if they do creep in there, not to be har^ 
bored or continued, else the place would feceive them naught, and return 
them into England upon all occasions worse." "These cautions are to be 
observed in these undertakings. * * * * 2. That if any transplant 
themselves into plantations abroad, who are known schismatics, outlaws, or 
criminal persons, that they be sent for back upon the first notice, such persona 
are not fit to lay the foundation of a new colony."^ — Bacon'' s Works, vol. 2, 
jpa^e o86. Nearly all the earhcr and later historians of Virginia represent 
the first settlements of that ancient Dominion as containing a very la'-ge pro- 
portion of such as were "not fit to lay the foundation of anew colony." 
Even the shoots of nobility and the numerous gentlemen who were sent over, 
■were mere profligates, liut was the colony of Jamestown a failure ? Many 
of the wise progoosticators of evil in the days of the first James had "not 
any faith in its success." Many adversities bcfel the early colonists. Some 
whole companies were entirely lost. The character of the whole settlement 
was such as to forebode ultimate failure on the theory of Lord Bacon. Yet 
that little handful of profligate and ill-bred men, bankrupts and libertines, soon 
expanded into a great and strong government, and in less than two hundred 
years from the naming of Cape Charles and Cape Henry, produced a Wash- 
ington, a Jefferson, a Madison, a Henry, a Lee, and a Marshall. Now do you 
demand that Liberia shall do more than this? The prospest of Liberia to-day 
is much brighter than was the prospect of Jamestown at the same perir)d of 
her existence. What was the character of the first settlers on the coast of 
Africa emigrating from the United States ? They were men and women with few 
exceptions, accustomed to hard labor, or at least familiar with some useful oc- 
cupation. There were among them no profligate sons of an effeminate nobility, 
no poor gentlemen, no broken-down tradesmen or libertines. A large majority 
of them were brought up on farms and plantations, and were familiar with all 
the operations of husbandry. A proper proportion of them were mechanics of 
different callings. And if all the Liberians were not of the right kind for colo- 
nists, fully as large a proportion of them were of the right kind, as were to be 
found in any of the early companies settling in Virginia. It was one of the 
"tokens of God's care of the colony of Liberia, t.iat the larger portions of the 



early emigrants were from the Southern States, and a considerahle proportion 
of them were manumitted slaves. These were all accustomed to labor. And 
even the free negroes from the Southern States were better colonists than the 
same class from the Northern or Middle States. And although there were 
many of the lowest class of free negroes, that very class described by Mr. 
Clay as "a base and degraded set, more addicted to crime and vice and dis- 
solute manners than any other portion of the people of the United States," 
these were not the influential, moving, moulding class of the colonists ; but 
these were held under control by others of a better class, and were encour- 
aged and stimulated by them, or by their example, to do something for them- 
selves, and for the colony. And if it be said that there were some who were 
worthless, beyond hope at home and abroad, to this we reply in four words of 
your own. — '' Society must have dregs." From what has been said I think 
it is clear that, although the colonists have not all, or as a whole, been what we 
could wish them to be, yet they will compare favorably with the first settlers 
of any part of North or South America or the West Indies, and come as near- 
ly up to your demands and Lord Bacon's precepts, as did the colonies of Ply- 
mouth or Jamestown. 

But how can the removal of so many men and women fit for good colo- 
nists, be a riddance to our own country of a great evil? It is a riddance, prin- 
cipally from the facts, that these colonists, however Avell qualified to be pio- 
neers to Africa, are of a difierent color from those among whom they lived 
here ; and that here the prejudice of color is hopelessly insuperable. The 
colonists who have gone to Liberia have been well suited for the imdertaking; 
and I have no doubt are, with their posterity, destined in the good providence 
of God to be a benefit and a blessing to the continent of Africa. But these 
same colonists remaining in this country could have done little for the general 
welfare. If some of them were virtuous, intelligent and enterprising, and have 
taken the lead in Liberia, they were here cramped and hemmed in and re- 
strained by public taste, public sentiment, and public laws, so that their worth 
could not be seen, or seen could not be appreciated, or appreciated could not 
be acknowledi:!;ed, or acknowledijfed could not be made available. And if some 
of them were low, vicious and illiterate, they were here without hope of im- 
provement; but in Liberia facts prove that surae of them have improved and 
actually become good citizens and good Christians. Nor was the change effec- 
ted ''by means merely of a voyage of thirty days." But it was efiected by 
a transfer from a Republic in which they had no riyhts^ to a Republic in which 
they had all the rights that any others had, and in which there was no preju- 
dice against them or restrictions upon them on account of color, and in which 
the Gospel was preached more nearly to all, and heard more nearly by all 
than in any part of the United States. 

You also make an admission, " that in a certain degree they have thus 
far succeeded." But the great danger is already past. The colony is already 
planted. The success "is permanent and is triumphant. All the predictions 
of its enemies, both North and South, have proved false. All the hopes of 
its friends have thus far been more than realized. The colony has become an 
independent Republic ; has taken a place and a name among the Christian 
nations of the earrh; and although it is yet feeble, it is aware of its weakness, 



8 

and is making steady and well directed efforts to gain strength. And if we 
look upon it as even a feeble Christian nation on a dark coast of heathendom, 
can we as Christians throw cold water upon it, or throw a straw in the way to 
retard its progress ? Let us give it all the aid in our power, — let us pray for 
its growth and expansion, and let us thank God and take courage from what it 
has already effected. But if we say we have no faith in its success, we dis- 
courage the colonists and their friends, and we mistrust the providence of God 
that has been so manifest in the whole history of the colony. " But it does 
not appear to us that their success is nearly as great as they consider it." To 
this we reply, that the friends of the cause may have generally too much con- 
fined their views to the bright side. It was better to do so, than to despair. 
But the friends of the cause have a more minute as well as more comprehen- 
sive acquaintance with their success than its enemies have ; and they have 
been more familiar with the difficulties already overcome, — and when they 
look back over the history of the colony, from the days of Ashmun to the 
present time, they i ay be ready to say as Campbell said of the Jamestown 
colony, "The wonder is that the settlement was effected at all." 

" No one who reads tlie statements of the judicious writer, whose book 
is our text, will say that the success of the colony is })erfect." 

Have the most sanguine friends of the cause said the success of the colony 
Avas perfect? The colony has thus far succeeded beyond expectation; thus 
far the success has been complete, but what has been done is but a beginning; 
the past is an ample guanintee for success in the future, and therefore we have 
entire confidence in the ultimate success of the enterprise, greatly to the hon- 
or of its founders and frien'ls, to the good of the African race, and to the 
glory of God. You quote seven paragraphs from Dr. Wilson, and one from 
the Rev. J. Burns, to prove that the success of the colony has been a partial 
or total failure, or has been exaggerated by its friends. And then you say, 
" Now all this constitutes a somewhat darker picture of the state of things in 
Liberia than is usually given by its zealous friends." But the colony has 
many discreet as well as zealous friends, who were fully aware of every thing 
your quotations prove, long before Dr. Wilson's book was published. They 
were familiar with the worst features of the picture, although they did not take 
pleasure in bringing them to public notice, or in exnggerating them, or mak- 
ing them a disparagement to the benevolent enterprise of the Society. And 
it is a remarkable fact that every particular of your eight quotations — except 
what Dr. Wilson says about the difference between white and colored persons 
— might have been truly and literally said of the Virginia colony at different 
periods of its history. A.nd besides the evils here ascribed to the colony of 
Liberia, the Virginians were tortured with a " rage for gold hunting." " There 
was no talke, no hope, no worke, but dig gold, wash gold, refine gold, loade 
gold." — Smith, as quoted by Campbell, p. 16. And they also had another 
ignis fatuus to bewilder them, the dream of the South Sea, which they sup- 
posed was about as far west as where Lynchburg now stands* And the fam- 
ine in Liberia as described by Mr. Burns, is but a faint picture of " the starv- 
ing time " in Virginia. Now if Virginia survived under all the evils ascribed 
to Liberia, and far more and greater, may not Liberia also survive and become 
an Ancient Dominion of glory and renown? 



I agree with you in thinking that in order to succeed the colony must 
groAV slowly, must not be made a hot-house plant. And it may be troe that 
some of her friends erred in desiring progress too rapid, and in endeavoring to 
procure legislative aid. But all this is consistent with an abiding faith in its 
ultimate success, and with a strong conviction of the benevolence and wisdom 
of the scheme ; and also with the opinion that the growth of the colony has 
thus far been too slow, and is not likely soon to become an overgrowth. The 
true friends of Colonization do not wish to linger always under the shadow of 
Cape Mesurado. Tliey know the extent of the continent, and they hope to 
see it sprinkled with colonies until the whole land shall be settled Avith a 
Christian people, and the native tribes shall rejoice in the near proximity of 
men able to instruct them in the sciences and arts of civilized life and in the 
principles of religion revealed from Heaven. 

The effort to engage Congress to provide mammoth steamships to trans- 
port negroes to Africa in crowds, may have been unwise, and did not by any 
means have the co-operation of all the friends of Colonization, and was at the 
time a failure. But as that measure in your judgment would, if successful, 
have been ruinous to the colony, was not the failure in Congress a token of 
the favor of God to the Colony in thus delivering it from the kindness of its 
friends. 

Your next endeavor to show another incompatibility in the Society's plans, 
that it must " bnng about two results which are absolutely incompanble with 
each other. It must remove the free negroes rapidly, or else it will not even 
keep pace with their natural increase, which is now about seven thousand an- 
nually. But it must at the same time remove these same free negroes slow- 
ly, or else the colony will be ruined by the too sudden influx of new-comers." 
Now this is indeed a sad predicament that the colony is placed in by its enemies. 
Being thus fettered in absolute incompatibilities, nothing but Divine Power 
could have kept it in successful operation for the last thirty years. But the 
friends of the society have not feared a too rapid influx of new-comers. '1 hey 
know that if Ijiberia cannot receive all that go, her territory may be exten- 
ded, and other colonies or settlements commenced, so as not to interfere with 
her ])rosperity. And the ISociety has not pledged itself, nor is it in any way 
bound, either to remove the free negroes rapidly, or to remove all the free 
negroes, or to remove their natural increase. They have never pledged 
themselves to do any thing more than to remove all that apply, as far as they 
have means. And every free negro that is removed may be a blessing to 
Africa, and almost certainly is benefited himself. In all these respects the 
Society is fruitful of good and of good only, and we ought not to pronounce 
it a failure or withdraw our confidence from it because it has done some things 
we do not approve, has failed to do some things it never engaged to do, or has 
not done everything its friends or its foes may think it ought to have done. 

Your next effort is to set aside the claims of the Society on account of hav- 
ing put down the slave trade. " We have produced testimony enough, we think, 
to show that it is not so certain as the Colonization Society and its friends repre- 
sent, that the slave trade has been put down." Yet you have not given a 
particle of evidence that the Society ever claimed to have put down, or to be 
able with its present resources to put down the slave trade on the whole coast. 



10 

What was done or sairl by the i^Taval Affairs Committee in the House of Rep- 
resentatives was not done or said or even approved by the Society. Nor was 
Mr. Clay's speech by authority of the Society, although delivered at an an- 
niversary meeting, but he spoke his own sentiments and on his own authority. 
Yet what he said was strictly and literally true. He did not say the slave 
trade had been put down at all, much less that it had been put down by the 
colonies. But he said, " We have shown the most effectual and complete 
method by which there can he an end put to that abominable traffic, and that 
is bv Colonization." And how has this been shown? Simply by entirely ex- 
cluding the slave trade from more than five hundred miles of African coast. 
If one feeble colony-^-feeble as you have represented it— -has excluded the 
trade from five hundred miles of coast, might not ten such colonies exclude it 
from five thousand miles, and might it not thus, by a sufficient number of col- 
onies, be excluded from the entire continent? The number of slaves shipped 
from many different points, and the aggregate from the continent, might be 
greater (though it is not so,) than at the beginning of the colony, still the fact 
remains that it has been entirely suppressed along five hundred miles of coast 
where it was rampant before the founding of the colony, and the conclusion 
is inevitable, that if colonies of the same kind were planted along the entire 
coast, at suitable distances, the trade would from the entire coast be excluded. 
For the colonists, to a man, and the Liberian government, are uncompromising 
enemies to the slave trade, notwithstanding the absurd attempt of a British 
Review and a South Carolina Senator, to affix upon them the stigma of par- 
ticipation in the hateful traffic. The colony is yet small, it is feeble, its re- 
oourccs are limited, and it would be presumption in its friends to say either 
that it had put down, or, with its present means, that it could put down the 
slave trade along the entire African coast. But it is very unfair in its ene- 
mies to charge this presumption upon the Society. The Society has indeed 
demonstrated that the trade may be put down, and it has shown how this may 
be done. By giving an undisputed sample of the work — a coast of more thafi 
five hundred miles already delivered from the trade — they have shown how 
the work may be done, and how it m.ay be done most effectually, at the least 
expense, and I believe in the shortest time. Let colonies be planted every 
two or three hundred miles along the coast, and every barracoon, from the 
Pillars of Hercules to Cape Town, will soon be deserted or converted to bet- 
ter purposes. 

It is true that the colony could not have done what has been accomplish- 
ed, without the aid of the meu'of-war that cruise along the coast. But it is 
also true that the naval forces could not have effected it without the co-ope- 
ration of the colonies. At least they had not excluded the slave trade from 
five miles of the coast previous to the settlement of Liberia. The two forces 
worked together and in harmony, and neither could have done the work without 
the other. But in the good providence of God, I believe that colonics are to 
be continued, multiplied and increased in population and resources until they 
shall have power to maintain naval squadrons of their own. But we know not 
how soon the naval forced now guarding the coast may be withdrawn. The 
Abolitionists and the ultra Southerners may induce our government to with- 
hold herald; and other causes may drive away the European forces. When 



11 

tliat takes place, flccording to your view, the colony will pcvlsh, will be rnn 
over by the slave dealers and hordes of wild natives and their chiefsj and the 
State House in Monrovia will become a barracoon, and the other houses, pub- 
lic and private, Avill be residences of men who are now pronounced pirates, or 
of some Adahunzun with three hundred wives ; and the streets of the now 
peaceable village will be planted with sprigs from the gigantic fetish-tree at 
Badagry, whose branches arc laden with human carcasses and human limbs ! 
But not go have I been taught to mistrust the good pi^ovidence of God. lie 
has provided aid and protection for the colony thus far, and He will provide 
for it as there is need after Britian and America refuse to maintain naval for- 
ces on African seas. 

In what I have said on the suppression of the slave trade, I purposely 
avoided saying anything about the inliuence of the colony on the trade beyond 
her own limits. I said all that was necessary for my purpose. But it would be 
easy to show that the colony has had no inconsiderable influence in restraining 
the trade, or changing it from an open traffic to a mere smuggling business, 
for many hundred miles beyond her own borders. You will find something 
on this subject in a letter fiirst published in the Boston Traveler, and then in 
the African Repository, Sept., 1862. 

Your third effort is to set aside the claim, of the Colonization Society to be a 
Christian Missionary scheme. But you give no evidence to prove that the Soci-=' 
ety ever claimed to be a missionary scheme. Y'^ou quote from the Hon. Eli- 
sha Whittlesey, from Matthew St. Claire Clarke, Esq., from the Rev. James 
A. Lyon, from Mr. Clay, from the Maryland Colonization Journal, and from 
the Naval Committee of the House of Representatives, to show that such a 
claim has been made for the Society by its friends. But you bring nothing from 
the publications of the Society itself, (and its publications are quite extensive,} 
to show that it either now claims or ever has claimed to be a missionary scheme. 
And although I believe that the missionary bearings of Colonization are entirely 
incidental, and entirely without the main and original design of the Soci-^ 
ety; yet 1 believe that Colonization is one of the means by which God designs 
to Christianize Africa. And I believe this will be done in four different ways ; 
1st. By continued emigration. 2d. By the natural generation of the colo^ 
nists and of the natives Avho may join with them — that is, by rearing up 
Christian families. 3d. By direct missionary efforts made by the colonists^ 
Avhich will become more extensive as wealth, population and intelligence shall 
increase, and piety shall take a stronger hold upon them. 4th. By absorp- 
tion of the natives and amalgamation of one class with the other. By the 
first two of these methods has a great Christian nation been raised up within 
two and a half centuries on the continent of North America. By the third^ 
a few remnants of tribes of aborigines of our country have to a great extent 
been Christianized. But in the fourth, the Liberians have a great advatitage 
over the first settlers of America. They are of the same color with the na- 
tives. And although they now look upon them as an inferior race, yet they 
have considerable intercourse with them, and this intercourse will gradually 
increase, and will, with the direct missionary and educational efforts, to a 
greater or less extent, bring them to adopt the manners and mode of living of 
civilized life; and then they will naturally flow into the body politic, and be- 



12 

come in all respects idontificfl with the colonists. In the course of a few 
generations considerable strength will be thus added to the colony, and not a 
few of the natives and their posterity will be incorporated into a Christian 
nation. 

It may be asked whether it is right to supplant the natives and place the 
colonists in their stead. I reply that it is, just as right as it was for Europe- 
ans to supplant the roving tribes of America. And in Liberia no land has 
been taken from the natives but by fair purchase. This is more tlian can be 
said of any colony ever planted in America — that alone of William Penn ex- 
cepted. And the Liberians have shown no disposition to remove the natives 
or drive them from pillar to post, as was done in many instances in this coun- 
try. " We are opposed," said the Liberia Herald in 1847, " to the Africans 
being deprived of their lands without a fair equivalent is paid to them for it, 
and in no instance after purchasing their lands, have we ordered them to re- 
move from them ; on the contrary they have invariably been urged to re- 
main and adopt civilized customs." This is greatly to the credit of the colo- 
nists, and is in striking contrast with the treatment received by the Chero- 
kees and other tribes of Indians from the first settlers and governments of 
some of our States. In this connection I may notice what you siy in regard 
to the government of Liberia taking the natives under its protection. " The 
enrollment of eighty thousand Africans as citizens of the Republic, was bad 
enough as an omen for the future prosperity of this unfortunate Republic." 
Now in the first place I deny that Liberia is an unfortunate Republic. It 
has thus far been fortunate and successful beyond comparison. I ask you to 
point out the colony planted in any part of the earth that has encounted diffi- 
culties and overcome them, or that has formed wise and benevolent plans and 
executed them more successfully than Liberia has done. And in the next 
place I deny that the treatment of the natives by the Republic has been in 
any respect bad and ominous of future evil. And I confess my utter inabil- 
ity to imagine what hocus-pocus you can see in the incorporation of the na- 
tives into the Republic. The Aborigines Protection Society of London, many 
years ago, speaking of the situation of Aborigines generally, said : " There 
is one condition Avhich, with scarcely an exception, may be regarded as com- 
mon to them all. They exist in a sort of antagonism with the professing 
Christian and civilized nations, who begin by sharing Avith them the parts of 
the earth which they inhabit, and end by consummating a process which 
blots out their name and nation." But Liberia is an exception to this charge, 
which is almost true of the whole-world. Liberia is the only place, or one 
of the few places, where the natives are treated kindly, and are at once in- 
corporated into the society and made part and parcel thereof. For this she 
deserves praise ; but this highly commendable course you pronounce bad and 
ominous! An article of the constitution of the Republic is in these words : 
" The improvement of the native tribes and their advancement in the arts of 
agriculture and husbandry being a cherished object of this government, it 
shall be the duty of the President to appoint in each county some discreet 
person, whose duty it shall be to make regular and periodical tours through 
the country for the purpose of calling the attention of the natives to these 
wholesome branches of industry, and of instructing them in the same ; and 



13 

the Legislature shall, as soon as can conveniently be done, make provision 
for these purposes by the appropriation of money." Here we have evidence 
that the Republic is straggling in its weakness and poverty to do something 
for the natives to prevent them from being blotted out of existence. And it 
is thus aiding the missionary efforts that are made by different organizations 
in this country to enlighten the natives, and to remove from among them any 
prejudice that may exist against men bearing the name of Christians. If the 
government of Liberia had not incorporated the natives with themselves, had 
held them at a distance and themselves in reserve, and treated them with in- 
difference except so far as they could make some gain of them, they might 
have considered them as of the same character with the traders and kidnap- 
pers with whom they had long been familiar. But when they saw them en- 
deavoring to do them good, recognizing them as of the same blood, and invi- 
ting them to become one with them, and partake of the benefits of their gov- 
ernment, their civilization and their religion, prejudice was at once allayed ; 
and the colony now has as strong and as favorable a hold upon them as it 
could be expected to have under the circumstances. And for the very part 
she has acted towards the natives we give her great credit, and encourage 
her to persevere in so laudable a course. 

In regard to the bearings of Colonization upon the evangelizing of Africa, 
it may be admitted that some of the friends of the Society, and to some ex- 
tent the public generally, have fallen into an error in supposing that white 
men cannot live in that climate. Yet it is true that larger numbers of mis 
sionaries have fallen in that field- than in others, in proportion to the numbers 
sent out. And it is also true that the black man from the United States can 
endure the climate better than the white man. And there is every pros- 
pect of Liberia itself, in the course of time, furnishing well qualified mission- 
aries of her own native sons, who will suit the country better than either 
whites or blacks from America. 

Your long argument to prove that wherever the Christian religion has 
made an impression, it has done it by Missions and not by Colonies, I consider 
entirely inconclusive. I say that the larger portions of Christians now in the 
world, in all countries, have derived their religion not from missionaries, but 
by inheritance, or as I have before expressed it, by natural generation from 
Christian parents. Not one in a hundred of the Christians in the United 
States have received their religion directly by means of missionaries. But 
nearly all have received it by the instructions, the prayers, and the exam- 
ples of Christian parents and Christian friends around them. The present 
generation in Liberia are receiving religious instruction and impressions from 
missionaries ; but Liberia will ere long be able to send missionaries to others, 
instead of looking to others for them. She may be slow, too slow in putting 
off the leading strings of her dependence. But no doubt there are some 
characters under formation, some minds under instruction, among her rising 
youth, that will become ministers of the Lord Jesus Christ, who need not be 
ashamed, and that may carry the everlasting gospel into many a dark place 
of the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty. Can we see nothing of prom^ 
ise in the Alexander High School ? Is the Ashmun Institute to render no 
aid ? Or is there any thing ominous in the embryo Liberian College ? 



14 

In thit! connection I give you an extract from the annual message of Presi- 
dent Benson, for 1858 : 

" Peace and respect for our laws among the aborigines have been remarka- 
bly preserved. And though the influences of our Christian and civilized ex- 
ample have not extended as rapidly and as effectually among them as we have 
desired, yet it is both gratifying and encouraging to us to know, by incontro- 
vertible evidence, that the benign influences of our Christianity and civiliza- 
tion are hopefully progressing among them ; that proselytes are being made 
annually from their ranks, while the greater part of those living within fifty 
miles of our settlements, are manifestly assimilating themselves to our man- 
ners and customs ; and their confidence in and respect for us and our institutions 
are correspondingly increasing." Here are glimpses of what Liberia promises 
for the future, that are not ominous. And here is evidence that Liberia is 
not an unfortunate Republic. She is a clear, bright shining light in one of the 
darkest portions of the earth. And her wliole course of policy toward the 
natives has been of a highly commendable kind, and well calculated to make 
the right kind, of impression upon them. You say " America was indeed 
Christianized by colonies, but the aboriginal inhabitants of America Avere not 
so Christianized." I venture to give some reasons why they were not. 
First, the colonies in America did not treat the savages in a Christian man- 
ner. They oppressed them, and made gain of them, and took their lands 
from them. Secondly, The difference of color prevented the aborigines from 
being amalgamated with the colonists or incorporated into their governments. 
Thirdly, The savages of America were contg-minated by coming into contact 
with the vices of Europeans, learning from them the use of rum and firearms. 
But not one of these causes operates in Liberia. There the colonists have 
treated the natives with kindness, taught them the arts of p'*ace, greatly di- 
minished the use of rum among them, and incorporated them into their gov- 
ernment. There, no distinction of color is seen, and no prejudice of color ex- 
ists. And there is no reason why thousands of the natives may not gradually 
be brought by the colony into civilized life, and into the pale of the Christian 
church. 

It is true that colonies have not been sent out expressly to propagate the 
Christian Religion. But it is also true, that the Christian religion has been 
greatly extended by colonies, although the colonies were not sent out with 
that design. And God has preserved the true religion in the world in more 
instances than one, by colonies. He chose Abraham in Chaldea, and coloni- 
zed him and his family in Canaan, and thence removed his posterity into 
Egypt, and thence brought them back to Canaan. And in the time of the 
captivities his people were transplanted into Babylonia, and there some of the 
heathen became converts, by means of the colonists. Then they were 
brought back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple. But it is not ne- 
cessary to pursue this argument further. It is sufficient for our purpose to 
know that there is nothing in the Bible prohibiting the planting of Christian 
colonies, that these colonies afford great facilities for carrying on missions, 
and that the Liberian colony has been highly favored by the providence of 
God, and now is full of promise of great usefulness in the future. 

But wicked, unchristian sailors, merchants, or consuls, may greatly preju- 
dice the natives against the Christian religion. And many of the colonists 



^ 51 ^ 4 



15 

may conduct themselves in the same way, for many of them are low, degra- 
ded and vicious men and women ; and they may have a vcvj bad influence 
on the heathen ol Africa. Very true. And this is one of the great difficulties 
the colony has had to contend with, and is now contending with, and expects 
to contend with for many years to come. But it is neither an insuperable 
difficulty nor a reason for saying that the colony is a failure, or cannot suc- 
ceed, or is not an important and promising coadjutor of missionary societies in 
in their efforts to evangelize Africa. The influence of the wicked part of the 
colony will be confined almost entirely to the immediate vicinity of the colony, 
and will be, and has been to a great extent, counteracted by the more potent 
influence of the more respectable portion of the colonists, Avho are of good 
character, and most of whom are at least professing Christians. But the 
ministers and educated Christian men and women whom we expect to be 
reared up in the colony, will no doubt go far into the interior, and in dif- 
ferent directions carry the blessings of the gospel to them Avho are afar off. 
If the leading men of the colony were infidels, or men of bad character, so 
that the influence of the government itself was against Christianity, your ar- 
gument would have some force. But this is not true, and never has been 
true, of Liberia. And this is one of the particulars in which I think she has 
not been an unfortunate Republic. Her public men have been and are 
true men, in all respects safe and reliable. There has been no swindling on 
their part, no embezzlement of public funds, and no repudiation of or failure to 
pay public debts. And the influence of the leading men and of the govern- 
ment, has uniformly been in favor of the Christian religion and of morality, 
and against the slave trade, and all tendencies to oppress the natives, or make 
gain of them unjustly. Now can these things be said of our own country ? 
In which of the States have there been no defalcations ? Are they all clear 
of the sin of repudiation ? Have not some of them oppressed the poor Indians, 
pelted and peeled them until they might almost all adopt the celebrated lan- 
guage of the Shawnee chief, — " Logan's blood flows in no man's veins !" 
But the colonies on this continent have survived all these evils, and have sur- 
vived in spite of all the evil forebodings and evil wishes of many in the father- 
land, who had " no faith in their success." 

The history of the American colonies teaches us an important lesson of the 
great forbearance of God towards the wicked, and of his accomplishing his 
grand purposes in the world in spite of the silliness of his people, and of the 
malice or ungodliness of their enemies. Many a time the language of the 
prophet was applicable to the church in America : " Ephraim also is a silly 
dove without heart." — Hos. 7:11. It may to some extent be now applicable 
to the church in Liberia. And many a time did the plaintive prayer of the 
Psalmist suit the pilgrims and their children : " Lord, how long shall the 
wicked triumph ?" — Fs. 94:3. The intelligent Christian in Liberia no doubt 
sees enough every day to give him reason to utter the same prayer. But 
He that keepeth Israel and bringeth light out of darkness, has still a church 
in America that is not in all things silly ; and has also a church in Liberia 
that is not destined to be always feeble. Yours very sincerely, 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllillllM 



011 898 842 5 ^ 



